ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on four key challenges or issues encountered by the present Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) programmes and courses: benchmarking and assessment, curriculum and materials, teaching and pedagogy, learning and learning development. It tackles the uncertainties for benchmarking CFL programmes and standardising learning outcomes and competence in L2 Chinese, with a focus on written language. The book also explores the content of CFL curricula and learning materials, as it has been felt that the cultural input in CFL textbooks is inadequate and the lexical input is insufficient for developing students' intercultural competence. It also represents some of the pioneering and creative experiments in classroom teaching with a priority for fostering learner autonomy. The book analyses the learners' achievements to see the developmental features of their production in the written language.
